How to Incorporate "World Schooling" into Online Learning

July 11, 2023 byCassandra Polzin

3 min to read

Three students engaging in a world learning activity outside

Field trips are an exciting part of school. By going out and enjoying new experiences, students can deepen their learning and expand their established knowledge base. Through open world learning, children and their families get to enjoy the benefits of field trips all the time.

Discover how learning by traveling can benefit your student and how online schooling provides the flexibility needed to enjoy world learning.

What is World Learning?

Open world learning, or learning by traveling, is a lifestyle where your student learns valuable life lessons while traveling. World learning doesn’t have to involve international travel—even traveling around your home state provides invaluable educational opportunities to supplement their traditional schooling.

Through world learning, your family may visit new towns, states, or countries to explore the local culture, historic sites, and landmarks. And open world learning doesn’t need to involve a rigid schedule or aggressive learning plans.

How Can Learning by Travel Supplement Online Lessons?

By experiencing the travel and all that new locations have to offer through world learning—a powerful way to supplement your child’s online lessons--students can learn much more than they would in a classroom alone, while increasing the value they get from their traditional lessons.

Learning World Culture

Culture can be challenging to teach without fully experiencing it. Through world learning, your child can meet and interact with people with different experiences to their own. By socializing with people from all backgrounds, religions, economic status, your child can be fully immersed in a new culture.

Your child could also enjoy exposure to the local language, the opportunity to try authentic food, and participating in local festivals and traditions. While they can learn about all of these concepts in the classroom, real-world experiences are often much more tangible and meaningful.

Discover World History

While virtual field trips can be fantastic learning experiences, nothing compares to walking through historic sites in person. While traveling, your family can explore historic landmarks and tour sites of notable events in history.

Most landmarks and historical sites have tours, plaques, or other educational resources to explain their significance and add context to their place in history. As your child’s Learning Coach, you can seek out opportunities to see landmarks that align with the periods of history your child is currently learning about in school.

Hone Life Skills Through World Learning

While children learn a lot in school, there are many life skills that can’t be taught in a classroom setting. In addition to expanding knowledge from in-school lessons, world learning allows kids to gain invaluable real-world skills they’ll leverage for the rest of their lives.

Traveling gives children valuable perspectives about the world and teaches humility. "Travel and educating children about their roles as citizens of the world when they're young ensures they will retain that message into their adult years," Dr. Robin Hancock, a global education specialist with Bank Street College, told Travel + Leisure.

By involving your student in the planning and scheduling of your travels, a learning by traveling lifestyle also teaches children flexibility and decision-making.

How Does Online School Enable Open World Learning?

Online school gives families extra flexibility when it comes to their schedule and location. Unlike traditional brick–and-mortar schools, students can take their lessons anywhere they have internet and can set up a computer. This flexibility enables learning by travel, making it more accessible for your family to explore the world.